1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a contact carrier, and more particularly, to a contact carrier having a plurality of contact terminals arranged alternatively along sides of the carrier and interposing with respect each other so as to efficiently make use of the carrier.
2. Description of the Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 6,976,888 issued to Tokorozawa on Dec. 20, 2005 discloses a conventional electrical contact. The electrical contact is stamped from a metal plate and remains attached to a carrier strip after stamping. The electrical contact comprises a base plate, an elastic plate portion extending from the upper of the base plate, a spring arm bending from the upper of the elastic plate portion and a solder ball attachment paddle extending from the bottom end of the base plate. The upper ends of the elastic plate portion are connected to the carrier strip. When the electrical contacts are assembled to an insulative housing, the carrier strip carries a number of electrical contacts for simultaneously fitting the electrical contacts into the passageways of the insulative housing.
Due to there is a distance between adjacent passageways of the insulative housing, there must be a distance between the two adjacent electrical contacts connected to the carrier strip, otherwise the electrical contacts on the carrier strip will not match with the passageways one to one. When the electrical contacts are stamped and formed, the materials between the two adjacent electrical contacts are cut away. This produces many waste materials and adds the cost.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,922,889 issued to Tsai on Aug. 2, 2005 discloses a shifting device for shifting two rows of continuous terminals includes a body and a shaft. The body is formed with a hole and an inlet and an outlet both communicating with the hole. A direction into the inlet and a direction out of the outlet are the same. The inlet is shifted a predetermined distance away from the outlet. The shaft is fitted with the hole of the body and defines a spiral channel with the body after fitting with the hole of the body. The spiral channel corresponds to the inlet and the outlet of the body. According to the structure, one row of the continuous terminals enters the body from the inlet and travels along the spiral channel and travels out of the body from the outlet with a predetermined distance shifted away from the other row of the continuous terminals. As it can be readily seen from FIGS. 1 and 2, a contact carrier is arranged with two rows of contact terminals either facing back to back or facing each other. According to the disclosure, the carrier can make most of the contact terminals.
Hence, an improved contact sheet and the electrical contacts arranged thereon is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.